According to Lauten Audio’s latest blog entry here, the company is adding to its ‘Series Black’ line with the LA-220 and LA-120 large-diaphragm and small-diaphragm condenser mics respectively. This range of mics was launched earlier this year with the LA-320, which we reported on here: Lauten Audio LA-320. They describe the ‘Series Black’ line as suitable for ‘budding recordists’. Let’s hope these new budget mics don’t have a budget sound – you’d hope not from Lauten Audio.

Lauten Audio LA-220 and LA-120 Series Black Condenser Microphones

In extending its ‘Series Black’ range, Lauten’s choice has fallen on the obvious candidates. The LA-220 is a large-diaphragm studio condenser microphone with a cardioid polar pattern. They describe the mic as being good for vocal recording, but of course I’m sure its uses will actually be more diverse than that. It’s great to see it will come with it’s own shock mount though.

The LA-120 is a small-diaphragm studio condenser microphone, but will come with interchangeable capsules for omni and cardioid polar patterns. Sold as matched pairs in a nice wooden case with clips, this could prove to be an ideal pair of mics to have in your studio, suitable for a number of applications.

There are alternative versions of these mics in abundance already on the market, so it will be interesting to see how these perform. One feature that I really appreciate about both these models however, are the high-pass filters. Not all microphones come with these fitted and especially in home recording environments, these can be highly useful. Some pre-amp or interface choices, particularly suitable for home recording also often don’t facilitate high-pass filters, so this is great. The LA-120 also sports a 15kHz Low-pass filter, which I’m not so keen on, but it’s there.

More Information

Currently only the LA-220 is featured on their website, but presumably the LA-120 will appear any day. Shipping is said to begin this month in the US, and internationally in October. I’m slightly surprised at the pricing information according to their aforementioned blog entry, which reads:

“The LA-220 has a manufacturer suggested retail price of 499 USD and an estimated street price of 249 USD and the LA-120 has a suggested retail price of 599 USD and an estimated street price of 349 USD.“

These are great prices, especially the “street prices”, but it seems slightly odd for a manufacturer to even mention both. No one will want to pay the full retail price now, and this can’t be good for their distributor relationships.